Masanori “Othello” Ichikawa was born in Tokyo in 1973, and started playing backgammon in 1997. It was about the time that online backgammon servers and stronger software appeared on the scene. As one of the younger players, he naturally gravitated to those tools, and still uses them today to study the game. He won his first national title, "Meijin", in 2004, and has since won two more titles, including the "Japan Open" in 2019. Masanori is a member of Japan's national team which won the WBIF online team tournament in 2020. Each year, he presents a series of backgammon problems at the Japan Open. This “Othello Quiz” is later uploaded on the internet, and is widely considered to be one of the best quiz series available. The Otthello quizes, dating back 2000, can be found at https://backgammon.or.jp/?page_id=3479

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